Bid to have charges against former Defence Forces member Lisa Smith dropped

Former Defence Forces member Lisa Smith wants the Special Criminal Court to stop her imminent trial on charges of being a member of Islamic State and financing terrorism.

Her lawyers have brought a pre-trial application seeking to have all charges against Ms Smith dropped. They will argue the evidence is not sufficient to safely ground a conviction on any of the charges.

It is believed the prosecution is seeking to rely, inter alia, on lengthy interviews with Ms Smith and other material including social media messages.

The SCC was previously told Ms Smith had engaged fully with gardaí when interviewed.

The trial was previously fixed to open on Tuesday, January 11th, but the non-jury court will first deal with the pre-trial application, brought under section 4.e of the Criminal Procedure Act, to have the charges struck out.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Tony Hunt, gave Ms Smith’s legal team, led by Michael O’Higgins SC, permission last month to bring the pre-trial application.

While the application was listed to return before the court on Tuesday, it may not be fully dealt with until a later stage.

Ms Smith, (39), from Dundalk, Co Louth, denies a charge of membership of an unlawful terrorist group, Islamic State (ISIS), between October 28th, 2015 and December 1st, 2019.

She has also denied a charge of financing terrorism by sending €800 in assistance, via a Western Union money transfer, to a named man on May 6th, 2015.

Her trial has been listed to last for 12 weeks.